Price effects of the Iran conflict already showing up in March data. For the month, prices up a lot and real earnings are down. And it almost surely gets worse from here. 1

$122,377 needed to support 2 adults and 2 children in Fulton County, GA Housing $22,888 Food $14,787 Child Care $15,878 Transportation $16,186 Transportation expenses are a combination of the costs of auto ownership, auto use, and transit use. Transportation cost data were provided by the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT). CNT created a modified version of transportation costs from its Housing and Transportation Affordability Index to account for differences in family types in the Family Budget Calculator. Health Care $19,462 Other Necessities $11,697 Taxes $21,478

How much does a modest but adequate lifestyle cost in your area? New Family Budget Calculator estimates from @epi.org

Because it’s a smash and grab.

Should high earners support scrapping Social Security’s cap on taxable earnings? Earnings above a cap aren’t subject to the payroll taxes that fund Social Security. As a result, billionaires pay the same tax as someone earning $176,100 in 2025 (the cap is indexed to the average wa...

FUN FACT FRIDAY: SOCIAL SECURITY EDITION 📣

Did you know: In 2025, millionaires (and billionaires, and trillionaires) pay the same for Social Security as someone earning $176,100? 😲

Say it ain't so @moniquemorrissey.bsky.social
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Hey folks, I've got a new report out about how declining enrollment (often driven by intentional policies) is making life harder across North Carolina's schools. Please give it a read and let me know what you think:

#ncpol #EduSky

Newsroom ASB Notice NASS discontinues select data collection programs and reports Issued August 28, 2025, by the Agricultural Statistics Board of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service. For more information, contact Lance Honig at Lance.Honig@usda.gov or (202) 690-8141. USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is discontinuing the Mink Survey (OMB Control Number 0535-0212) and the Agricultural Labor Survey (OMB Control Number 0535-0109), as these collections are deemed duplicative and/or no longer necessary. This action is taken under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) as part of the government’s efforts to improve efficiency and eliminate unnecessary burdens. The Notice of Discontinuance of Information Collections submitted to the Federal Register can be found here. ### NASS is the federal statistical agency responsible for producing official data about U.S. agriculture and is committed to providing timely, accurate and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture.

USDA quietly said Friday it will, after a century, end the Farm Labor Survey (FLS), the only wage survey of ag employers.

FLS is a critical input to setting local minimum wages for H-2A visa workers to try to avoid harm to U.S. workers' wages.
#LaborDay #EconSky
www.nass.usda.gov/Newsroom/Not...

How an administration that is actively trying to undermine unions and harm workers every way they possibly can chooses to celebrate Labor Day: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...

No, Native-Born Employment Has Not Soared A newly viral chart showing native-born employment levels is a multiple-count data felony. Focus instead on the native-born unemployment rate.

an interesting statistical deep dive: jedkolko.substack.com/p/no-native-...

‘No tax on tips’ will harm more workers than it helps: Proposals in Congress and now 20 states could encourage harmful employer practices and lead to tip requests in virtually every consumer transacti... When President Trump proposed exempting tipped income from taxation during his 2024 presidential campaign, many viewed it as a politically expedient gimmick to win support among tipped service workers...

One of those times when you wish your predictions would not have come true. www.epi.org/blog/no-tax-...

PA Turnpike rest stop workers have tips replace full wages Corporation Applegreen wants travelers along the Pennsylvania Turnpike to pay the burden of  wages it cut for rest stop employees.

When Trump and friends started pushing no tax on tips, this is what they wanted to achieve: keystonenewsroom.com/2025/08/12/p...

As a 20+ year resident of DC, I can assert without reservation that the city is a safe and generally wonderful place to live...except for the lack of full constitutional rights.

Ahead of the job numbers coming out next month, folks to follow for RELIABLE AND ACCURATE INFORMATION include:

@elisegould.bsky.social
@aaronsojourner.org
@gbenga-ajilore.bsky.social
Jessica Fulton (who isn't on here, but someone to follow)
@epi.org if you want a breakdown by race and gender

Remember how the tariffs were supposed to help manufacturers?

Opinion | Data from Calif. and D.C. shows how minimum wage hikes can hurt Recent experience underscores the perils of raising minimum wage above what the market can bear.

Probably unreasonable to expect the Post editorial board to stay on top of economic research but there are three studies of California's fast food minimum wage (not just the one they preferred to highlight)

The average estimate across studies suggests the policy had essentially no employment effect

This is awful. Reliable economic data is a key strength of the US economy.

When Argentina and Greece faked economic data it contributed to major crises.

I don't think Trump will be able to fake the data given the procedures. But there is now a risk plus an awful appearance.

The funding increase for arrests, detentions, deportations will cause widespread harm to the labor market and destroy millions of jobs held by immigrant and US-born workers

www.epi.org/blog/the-rep...

A bar chart titled "If Congress approves the Republican budget bill, Trump's mass deportation agenda will destroy nearly six million jobs." The chart displays the "Employment reductions after four years of one million annual deportations" across three categories: Immigrant: 3,316,000 jobs lost US-born: 2,571,000 jobs lost Overall: 5,887,000 jobs lost A note at the bottom states: "Assuming 670,000 additional annual deportations for four years above a baseline annual deportation rate of 330,000." The source is cited as "Analysis of East et al (2023) as described in the text."

Now that Congress has passed the Republican spending bill, "[if] Trump succeeds in carrying out his deportation goals...5.9 million workers will lose their jobs over the next 4 years"--3.3 million immigrants and 2.6 million US-born workers.
-@benzipperer.org @epi.org

www.epi.org/blog/the-rep...

Chart showing that raising the federal minimum wage to $17 would provide $700 bn to workers, compared with only $39 bn from no tax on tips policy.

As Congress debates no tax on tips, important to recognize just how unserious an effort to help working people it is. Raising the federal minimum wage would deliver nearly 18x as much income to workers. www.epi.org/blog/increas...

NEW analysis by the Congressional Budget Office shows the "One Big Beautiful Bill"

1.) Makes the bottom 30% worse off

2.) Finances tax cuts that make the top 10% in particular better off.

This is not shared sacrifice--it's a fiscal transfer from the bottom to the top

www.cbo.gov/system/files...

No, not directly. The deduction is only against their federal income tax liability, not their FICA (social security/medicare) tax.

Chart showing that raising the federal minimum wage to $17 would provide $700 bn to workers, compared with only $39 bn from no tax on tips policy.

As Congress debates no tax on tips, important to recognize just how unserious an effort to help working people it is. Raising the federal minimum wage would deliver nearly 18x as much income to workers. www.epi.org/blog/increas...

The craziest thing about this fight between Trump and Elon Musk is that Republicans are trying to take away health care from 16 million people to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.

Column | ‘No tax on tips’ could backfire amid growing tip fatigue The legislation has implications for those who give gratuities and those who pocket them, with the potential to leave both sides feeling shortchanged.

‘No tax on tips’ could backfire amid growing tip fatigue

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

In DC an average of $44k will go to the top 1% (those w/inc over ~$1.3m) while the bottom 20% (inc under $26k) get $90 (until the tax cuts for lower inc folks expire). Paid for in part by the biggest ever cuts to health coverage and food assistance. Some serious reverse Robin Hood 💩.

There's a lotta concern about the short run (ie recession or not) implications of Trump's agenda. Dani is right to point to the long run as far far more consequential.

Labor cancels unemployment modernization grants for states The grant dollars — which the agency has been doling out since Congress allocated funding for fraud and access work in 2021 — don’t align with department priorities anymore, Labor says.

www.nextgov.com/modernizatio...

Americans favor labor unions over big business now more than ever, analysis of new data @epi.org from me & Adam Reich of Columbia Labor Lab.

In data back 60 years, Americans' sentiments are both warmer toward unions & cooler towards big business than ever before.
www.epi.org/blog/america...

🧵 (1/4) There are four fundamental flaws of the House tax bill.

#1 It is fiscally irresponsible; all reputable sources agree. Bond markets & downgrades show US financial fragility; this is a bad time to take on trillions in additional debt toward no useful policy rationale.

This reported SALT deal and accelerated Medicaid cuts would make the bill even more effective at transferring resources from low-income to high-income households.

Official CBO analysis confirms the obvious: House Republican tax and budget bill isn't shared sacrifice.

It makes poor people poorer and rich people richer. It does this by cutting health care & nutrition to help finance tax cuts skewed to the wealthy.

www.cbo.gov/publication/...